Editing Sun Yaoting (section)

== Life ==
Born into poverty, his family home was burned and fields stolen by a landlord in their village; his family hoped that by making Sun Yaoting into a eunuch, they would gain Imperial influence, and would be able to take revenge on the landlord. At the age of eight, Sun Yaoting was [[emasculated]] by his father at home<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Chatterton|first1=Jocelyn|last2=Bultitude|first2=Matthew|title=Castration, The Eunuchs of Qing Dynasty China: A Medical and Historical Review.|journal=De Historia Urologie Europace|volume=15|pages=39–47|url=http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/16906|accessdate=1 January 2015}}</ref> with a single razor cut, and without the use of [[anesthesia]]. The emperor he had hoped to serve, [[Puyi]], was deposed months later.<ref>{{cite news|title=Castration secrets of China's last eunuch revealed|work=ABC Online|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|date=2009-03-16|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/16/2517614.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120527074413/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/16/2517614.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 27, 2012|accessdate=2009-03-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Faison|first=Seth|title=The Death of the Last Emperor's Last Eunuch|work=The New York Times|date=1996-12-20|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEFD71431F933A15751C1A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1|accessdate=2009-03-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Yinghua|first=Jia|others=Sun Haichen (translator)|title=The Last Eunuch of China-The Life of Sun Yaoting by Jia Yinghua |year=2008|publisher=China Intercontinental Press|pages=314|isbn=978-7-5085-1407-9}}</ref>

Nonetheless, Sun Yaoting became a palace eunuch, and had become the attendant to the empress before the imperial family [[1924 Beijing Coup|was expelled]] from the [[Forbidden City]]. He continued to serve in [[Manchukuo]] until the puppet state's collapse at the end of [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Graham-Harrison |first1=Emma |title=China's last eunuch spills sex secrets |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-eunuch/chinas-last-eunuch-spills-sex-secrets-idUSTRE52E06H20090316 |accessdate=14 December 2018 |work=Reuters |date=16 March 2009}}</ref> His preserved genitals, considered a treasure by eunuchs, were discarded by his family during the [[Cultural Revolution]], when it was considered taboo to own anything from the "old society."

The 1988 dramatic film ''[[Lai Shi, China's Last Eunuch]]'' is based on Sun Yaoting's life. His biography ''[[The Last Eunuch of China]]'' was published in 1998 and translated to English in 2008.